25 minute read
Hand-crafted goods with a Tuscan touch
BY SUSAN SHALHOUB | Contributing Writer
IF
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two things have impacted Kimberly Pucci, it’s safe to say they have been the Italian region of Tuscany and the art of producing finely crafted goods, such as high-end jewelry and genuine leather bags.
It’s the kind of slow, detailed craftsmanship that can only be learned firsthand from experienced, skilled masters in tanneries and factories, which she has. Italy is also where Pucci developed an appreciation for this way of designing, creating and developing products she can then offer to American clients with pride.
The tagline for her company, Kimberly Pucci LLC, which has a storefront on Newport’s Thames Street, is “American luxury with Tuscan heritage.”
Her website offers items such as diamond drop earrings, made of 18-carat white gold for $12,000; an amethyst doublet ring of 18-carat rose gold for $5,800; and wine totes of premium pebble leather inside and out for $950.
“My craftsmen create for every luxury brand,” Pucci said. “I am not only an entrepreneur, but I know how to sell what I make. My target market? It’s me. We offer these items without compromising, right down to the zipper on a handbag, or a prong or shank on a ring. No detail is overlooked.”
A Narragansett native, Pucci was an English major who graduated from the University of Rhode Island with a minor concentration in Italian and art history.
She spent her junior year abroad in the Tuscany region of Italy, immersed in art and culture at the Università degli Studi di Firenze in Florence. Where she lived was a cultural environment as well – her host family handcrafted frames for Renaissance paintings at the Uffizi Gallery.
After graduation, she planned to attend law school in the U.S. But that plan was disrupted.
“I couldn’t get Florence out of my head,” Pucci said.
After graduating, she instead moved back to the city she loved, nannying to make money.
Like a layered painting, Pucci gained education in classic art and crafts from various perspectives. She made it a point to chat with goldsmiths, woodworkers, painters and sculptors who frequented her favorite Florence cappuccino bar
ITALIAN INSPIRATION: Kimberly Pucci, owner and creative director of Kimberly Pucci LLC in Newport, was inspired by the Tuscany region of Italy and the artisans and craftsmen she encountered while living there to launch her own business creating high-end jewelry and genuine leather products.
PBN PHOTO/DAVE HANSEN
about their commissions. She took classes and worked as an archivist at an art school. Pucci took any opportunity she could to see beauty in the making, sneaking into the Renaissance-era Pitti Palace – now a museum – to see a friend restoring dresses, for example, or visiting any city spot where she knew artists were working.
Jobs at Ferragamo and Gucci followed, as well as a position at a jewelry shop on the Ponte Vecchio, its owners from a family of jewelers dating back to the 1300s, Pucci said. Clients of the store included American senators and African kings.
She became retail director, working there for 11 years while designing on the side.
“There, I was initially weighing gold for 10 hours a day,” Pucci said. “Now, when I go to pick up pieces from suppliers and estimate its weight, they laugh because I am able to tell. But we didn’t have digital scales back then.”
After getting married and having her first child in Italy, missing family in Rhode Island brought Pucci back home in 2006. Her daughter was 1 year old.
But she certainly didn’t leave the luxury goods industry behind. What she calls “slow luxury” – taking time to produce fine jewelry and leather goods with care and create products its owners love – stays with her.
More than a passion for Pucci, the work has also become a comfort. She tells of being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at age 33, soon after moving back to the U.S.
“I put opening my business on hold,” she said. “I’d make business calls from the chemo chair and that’s how I got through it. As soon as my health was going in the right direction, I said to my doctors, ‘Can I fly to Italy?’ ” This gave her a goal and helped her through a challenging period.
Pucci and her husband still have their home in Tuscany. Their daughter is now 17, and their son is 12.
More recently, on the corporate side, Pucci found the COVID-19 pandemic to be challenging, as have many business owners.
With people quarantined, Pucci decided it meant a change in how the market was using luxury goods. They may not be going to posh restaurants, gala award shows or gallery openings, she reasoned, but rather spending time at home in flat sandals instead of designer heels – whether that be at their house, backyard, vacation condo, private plane or boat.
And so, the Kimberly Pucci Casa line of home goods, including leather placemats and leather pillows, was born. Brand collaborations, such as with The Brenton Hotel in Newport, opened another way to market her products, with partnerships with heritage brands such as Maison Haviland + Daum taking it global.
“We showcased our beautiful state in photo shoots on boats, picnicking outside, showing how we would be wearing luxury in a different way,” she said. “It doesn’t scream ‘luxury’ but says it very quietly.” n
At Quonset port, supply chain snags of a different kind
BY JACQUELYN VOGHEL | Voghel@PBN.com
(Editor’s note: A version of this story was first published on PBN.com on Nov. 5.)
Major ports around the country are jammed with ships carrying products and materials waiting to be delivered to their final destinations, but Rhode Island’s largest port is feeling the impact of pandemic-related supply chain disruptions in a much different way.
While ports in areas such as Southern California have experienced long lines of ships that need to be unloaded and cargo waiting on the docks, the Port of Davisville in North Kingstown, which primarily serves as an import point for automobile manufacturers, has seen ship arrivals drop significantly this year.
“We’re not experiencing any backup like we’re seeing on the West Coast,” said Steven J. King, managing director of Quonset Development Corp., which oversees the Quonset Business Park and the Davisville port. “The pandemic is having an opposite effect on our traffic, meaning traffic is down because manufacturers have been shut down by the pandemic in general, and supply in ships.”
Automobile imports, which comprise 95% of the port’s inbound traffic, were down by more than 25% in 2020 compared with the year before, King said, and 2021 has been much slower than 2020.
After unloading 338,447 cars at Davisville in 2019, North Atlantic Distribution Inc. – the auto importer located at Davisville – was down to 247,324 cars in 2020, and 143,600 through September of this year.
While the number of ships arriving at the port isn’t down significantly, each ship has been carrying less volume of imports than usual, King said.
King hasn’t seen any layoffs at port-related businesses in Quonset at this point.
An end to this issue isn’t on the immediate horizon, but King remains hopeful that the amount of material and products coming into the port will rebound within the next six to 10 months.
The Port of Davisville should be better prepared to meet a “large influx” of imports by the time they arrive, King said, with a new berth in service and a modernized pier in the works, which is slated for completion in May.
Officials at ProvPort Inc., the agency that oversees the Port of Providence, were not available for comment about activities at the state’s other major port.
The global supply chain problems causing gridlock at some ports are apparent in other ways at the Quonset Business Park, King said, with construction in the park slowed due to the late shipment of building materials.
The problem of late shipments is hitting Rhode Island’s manufacturing community at large, said Kathie Mahoney, center director of Polaris MEP.
Polaris, which assists manufacturing companies with business improvement programs, has noticed “companies having difficulty getting the materials that they need in order to produce their product,” Mahoney said.
“Some companies are paying more for inventory,” she said. “When possible, they are stockpiling the materials they need in order to ensure they have the materials required in order to produce their product.”
With most manufacturers Polaris works with reporting supply chain problems, Mahoney said the nonprofit is trying to connect clients with local companies that could be producing needed materials instead of shipping them in from foreign sources, or they are connecting clients with resources from Manufacturing Extension Partnerships in other states. n
BETTER TIMES: Motor vehicles are unloaded on Pier 1 at the Port of Davisville in North Kingstown in early 2019. Port officials say the number of imports has declined during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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CURRENT AFFAIRS: Wendy J. Schiller, a professor of political science at Brown University, will speak at the Northern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce’s Eggs & Issues event at Kirkbrae Country Club in Lincoln on Nov. 16.
COURTESY BROWN UNIVERSITY
EDITOR’S CHOICE Schiller to discuss current affairs with NRI Chamber
THE NORTHERN RHODE ISLAND Chamber of Commerce will hold an Eggs & Issues event featuring Wendy J. Schiller, a professor of political science at Brown University. Schiller will discuss current affairs in politics and government. TUESDAY, NOV. 16, 7:45-9 A.M. $25/members; $35/nonmembers Kirkbrae Country Club, 197 Old River Road, Lincoln. INFO AND REGISTRATION: bit.ly/3lJ4lsI
Building relationships
THE TRI-TOWN CHAMBER of Commerce will hold its networking group in a forum setting in which business owners and entrepreneurs can build business relationships with one another. Four one-hour group sessions will be held over two days.
MONDAY, NOV. 15, 8 A.M. TO 1 P.M., TUESDAY, NOV. 16, 8:30-9:30 A.M.
Free Tri-Town Chamber of Commerce, 280 School St., Mansfield.
INFO AND REGISTRATION:
bit.ly/3bh6d5H
Business fundamentals
THE SOUTH EASTERN Economic Development Corp. and BankNewport, in cooperation with the U.S. Small Business Administration, Small Business Development Center and SCORE, will provide a workshop in which participants will learn fundamentals of planning for and financing a small business. It is open to anyone currently in business, starting a business, or thinking about owning a business in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. TUESDAY, NOV. 16, 10 A.M. Free Online.
INFO AND REGISTRATION:
bit.ly/3nRYa5t
New connections
THE NORTHERN RHODE ISLAND
Chamber of Commerce will hold a Sip. Talk. Interact. Reconnect. networking event, hosted by The Beatrice. The event will allow attendees to meet and build business connections. Attendees will be able to tour the new hotel.
TUESDAY, NOV. 16, 5-7 P.M.
$20/members; $30/nonmembers The Beatrice, 90 Westminster St., Providence.
INFO AND REGISTRATION:
bit.ly/3pKmgSc
Getting started
THE CENTER FOR WOMEN & Enterprise will hold a workshop titled “Exploring Entrepreneurship & Steps to Start a Business.” The workshop will outline how to develop a business idea, legal structures, financial needs, resources and training. TUESDAY, NOV. 16, 5-7 P.M. Free Online.
INFO AND REGISTRATION:
bit.ly/3aBsvyD
Interested in having your businessrelated event included in What’s Happening? Contact PBN Researcher James Bessette at (401) 680-4838 or Research@PBN.com.
Chamber gathering
THE GREATER PROVIDENCE Chamber of Commerce will hold a Chamber Café networking event, hosted by Plant City Providence. The event will bring business professionals and entrepreneurs together to meet and build business connections.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 17, 8:30-9:30 A.M.
Free Plant City Providence, 334 South Water St., Providence.
INFO AND REGISTRATION:
bit.ly/3Ee9ijw
Podcasting 101
THE SOUTHERN RHODE ISLAND
Chamber of Commerce will hold a workshop titled “Podcasting 101.” Max Willett, founder and CEO of Custom3D LLC, will present the workshop, which will include the steps to create a podcast, ranging from inspiration for the topic to the technology needed to capture audio. Lunch will be provided. Seating is limited.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 17, 11:30 A.M. TO 1
P.M. $25/members; $30/nonmembers Southern Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, 230 Old Tower Hill Road, South Kingstown.
INFO AND REGISTRATION:
bit.ly/3pKr3mE
Learn basics of a biz plan
THE CENTER FOR WOMEN & Enterprise will hold a workshop titled “Business Plan Basics.” The workshop will offer an overview of writing a business plan. Topics to be discussed include reviewing each section of a business plan, research and writing tips, and resources for help and support.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 17, 5-6:30 P.M.
Free Online.
INFO AND REGISTRATION:
bit.ly/3Ek5dKE
Business after hours
ONE SOUTHCOAST CHAMBER of Commerce will hold a Business After Hours event, hosted by Barrett’s Waterfront. The event will provide an opportunity for Chamber members and nonmembers to mingle and build business relationships in an informal, relaxed business setting.
UPCOMING PBN EVENT: The 35th Anniversary Gala will be held on Thursday, Nov. 18, from 5:30-8 p.m. at the Aldrich Mansion in Warwick. For more information, visit PBN.com. For sponsorship opportunities, contact Advertising@PBN.com.
THURSDAY, NOV. 17, 5-7 P.M.
Free/members; $25/nonmembers Barrett’s Waterfront, 1082 Davol St., Fall River.
INFO AND REGISTRATION:
bit.ly/3FPIhVh
Effective marketing
THE R.I. SMALL BUSINESS Development Center will hold a workshop titled “10 Examples of Small Business Saturday Marketing Campaigns.” The workshop will offer attendees who are planning to participate in Small Business Saturday on Nov. 27 ways to boost your message. The discussion will review examples of effective marketing campaigns launched by small businesses. Julie Loffredi, a marketing counselor for RISBDC, will lead the discussion.
THURSDAY, NOV. 18, 11 A.M. TO
NOON. Free Online.
INFO AND REGISTRATION:
bit.ly/3iYJyiQ
Networking in Newport
THE GREATER NEWPORT Chamber of Commerce will hold a Business During Hours networking event, hosted by Innovate Newport. Members and nonmembers alike will hear the latest from the Chamber and network with professionals and business owners.
THURSDAY, NOV. 18, NOON TO 1 P.M.
Free Innovate Newport, 513 Broadway, Newport.
INFO AND REGISTRATION:
bit.ly/2ZsQtK6
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LEGALIZATION
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
For the moment, the snag has been that Ruggerio, House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, Gov. Daniel J. McKee and others have been negotiating behind the scenes for months on the details of how to tax and regulate recreational cannabis.
At a panel discussion on marijuana legalization at Johnson & Wales University in October, Sen. Joshua Miller, D-Cranston, acknowledged that state officials were still hammering out the details of adult-use marijuana legislation. That includes social equity provisions, expungement of drug convictions, the level of municipal control over retail stores and the involvement of organized labor.
Meanwhile, business leaders are wary that the legislation won’t contain enough provisions to protect employers.
Miller, who co-sponsored a recreational marijuana bill that was approved in the Senate earlier this year but died in the House, said in October that negotiators were getting closer to an agreement. For his part, Shekarchi was confident legislators would reach a solution.
“Marijuana has been kicking around for a lot of years,” the speaker said. “I think that legalization of marijuana is inevitable.”
Still, there are many, especially in the business community, keeping a close eye on how things play out.
EMPLOYER RIGHTS
Laurie White is one of them.
The president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce is adamant that the legislation must contain provisions that preserve the rights of employers to establish rules and conditions to maintain a drug-free workplace, including a zerotolerance policy. Otherwise, White said, businesses could be dealing with health care policy adjustments, more workers compensation claims and ensuring companies’ policies don’t run afoul of the law.
“It’s another compliance issue, another thing to understand and become expert on, and another piece of exposure and liability, and another expense,” said White, adding that her staff has been lobbying legislators on behalf of Chamber members.
Drug testing and screening are big question marks.
Miller’s bill and a similar one introduced in the House that also failed last spring specified that employers could ban the possession and use of marijuana in the workplace, but companies wouldn’t be allowed to fire a worker for the use of cannabis outside of work hours. The bills exempted one type of employer from the latter provision: federal contractors for which failure to take disciplinary action could cost them money.
Neither measure addressed employee drug testing and screening, and neither did a failed proposal to legalize adult-use marijuana that was part of McKee’s state budget proposal earlier this year.
White said many in the business community are opposed to recreational marijuana because they don’t want to have to go through the process of implementing drug testing protocols for it.
“The notion of continuous testing [for marijuana] is another cost; it’s another impediment; and it’s another distraction,” she said. “And anything that presents another set of uncertainty is definitely problematic for business.
“There is a great hue and cry around this and what it means,” she said. Manufacturers have been particularly vocal.
“We have a lot of machinery, dangerous equipment,” said Karl Wadensten, CEO and president of Richmond-based VIBCO Inc., a maker of industrial vibrators. “And even if you’re on your game, you could get really hurt.”
At the same time, he said, proving that someone is impaired from marijuana is more difficult than with alcohol since remnants of the drug can stay in the body for weeks.
That’s why David M. Chenevert, executive director of the Rhode Island Manufacturers Association, believes the business community should be part of the negotiations that have been taking place at the Statehouse.
“The big thing is ensuring that employees are kept safe and that employers are protected from lawsuits and liability issues,” he said. “Put us at the table.”
Connecticut-based defense contractor General Dynamics Electric Boat, which employs about 4,000 people at a facility in North Kingstown, went through a similar process earlier this year when Connecticut lawmakers legalized the adult use of recreational marijuana.
Electric Boat spokesperson Liz Power said the company communicated frequently with legislators in that state to ensure that employer protections were included in the legislation that passed in June. Connecticut exempted the construction, manufacturing and transportation sectors from provisions of the new law, such as prohibiting workers from using cannabis away from the workplace.
Now the company’s attention has turned to Rhode Island. At the North Kingstown facility, new hires are required to pass a drug test, and many employees must maintain a security clearance.
“Our No. 1 focus is for the safety of our workforce and that of the sailors aboard our submarines,” Power said in a statement. “If it is the will of the Rhode Island legislature to pass this initiative, EB would request employer protections similar to those included in the Connecticut legislation.”
Miller said state officials have examined how states such as Connecticut have addressed workplace concerns in their laws.
As it stands now, Rhode Island businesses are allowed to conduct drug tests and will still be allowed to do so under the provisions being negotiated now. “It will be up to the employer to determine how they test,” Miller said.
Miller said the language Rhode Island negotiators envision being included in future legislation would mirror Connecticut’s law, which allows employers to conduct marijuana drug testing of prospective employees, and drug testing or “fitness for duty” evaluations of employees. A positive test could be grounds for discipline or rescinding a job offer.
Miller said those involved in talks at the Statehouse also agree that they want to exempt certain industries from a recreational marijuana law and are looking to see how Connecticut deals with exemptions.
“It’s not an issue of contention,” he said. “We don’t see it as being controversial to those who are negotiating.”
Miller, who owns Trinity Brewhouse and the Hot Club in Providence, acknowledged however, that people who are under the influence of cannabis are not his priority. “There are a lot more job performance issues for people who drink heavily, or have a substance abuse disorder than it is for somebody that engages in regular cannabis intake,” he said.
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
While some businesses still have major questions about how legalization of adult recreational use will affect them, the payoff could be big for others that would be part of the evolving industry here.
Ocean State Cultivation Center in West Warwick, one of 65 licensed marijuana cultivators in the state, reports about $100,000 in monthly sales while producing more than 700 pounds annually in its 2,500-square-foot grow facility.
And that’s with a limited customer base of just three dispensaries selling medicinal marijuana.
SUPPORT GROUP: Cranston Democrat Sen. Joshua Miller, left, and Senate Majority Leader Michael J. McCaffrey, right, introduced legislation last spring to legalize recreational marijuana, with the backing of Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio, center. It passed the Senate but died in the House.
PBN PHOTO/ELIZABETH GRAHAM
CONTINUES ON PAGE 16
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 With the number of licensed dispensaries set to triple in the coming weeks, Ocean State Cultivation Center executive David Spradlin predicts sales will double. And the thought of dozens of retail outlets that his cultivation center could supply if cannabis is legalized has Spradlin’s mind spinning with big sales figures.
Spradlin, president of MWG Holdings Inc., a California company that also operates 18 marijuana retail stores in California and New Mexico, says sales in those states have doubled every year since 2018. “We’re expected to break $200 million in 2022,” he said.
MWG Holdings began operating Ocean State Cultivation Center in 2017 to get a foothold in the state with hopes to open retail stores here when marijuana is legalized.
“I would be shocked if Rhode Island, with adultuse, didn’t go over $150 million in [total] annual sales, if not $200 million,” he said. “This is a faucet that could be turned on pretty easily.”
Even with only legalized medical marijuana in the Ocean State, the cash is flowing. According to the R.I. Department of Business Regulation, sales through three licensed dispensaries amounted to $59.7 million in fiscal 2019. In the first 10 months of 2020, sales amounted to $65.2 million.
And that number is expected to escalate fast. On Oct. 29, the DBR held a special lottery to determine who would get five new dispensary licenses. The awarding of a sixth license has been delayed because of an applicant’s legal appeal.
The new dispensaries have nine months to open, and are also in line to become retail sites when recreational marijuana is legalized.
Spencer Blier, CEO of Mammoth Inc., a Warwick marijuana cultivator, said that right now his company is competing with other cultivators to sell marijuana at the three dispensaries at between $1,800 and $1,900 per pound. With an increase in demand if retail stores are opened, Blier said that price could soar to more than $3,000 per pound.
One concern he has: that the state might increase the number of licensed cultivators.
Miller has said publicly that the plan is to cap the number of cultivators at the current number, at least initially because many of the cultivators are only producing marijuana at a fraction of their capacity right now.
Who would be charged with regulating the new industry? While McKee proposed placing responsibility under the DBR, the measures introduced last spring by Miller and Rep. Scott A. Slater, D-Providence, would have set up a cannabis commission, similar to the system used in Massachusetts.
That’s a point of contention, with some such as Spradlin wanting a new commission to administer the new system, but others such as Blier wanting the DBR to oversee regulation, as it does with medical marijuana.
“I don’t know why they would want to create a Cannabis Control Commission,” said Blier. “It would be a significant change to the way we do business.”
Another potentially contentious issue: organized labor.
Miller acknowledged that officials are in talks about the part labor unions would play in a recreational marijuana system.
Spradlin, whose Ocean State Cultivation Center has unionized workers, thinks the state’s cannabis industry should be unionized to prevent employee turnover and create workforce consistency.
“I’m a huge proponent of it,” he said. “Workplace protections are important. It’s a booming industry, and labor is hard to come by. It’s always been a fruitful partnership.”
Sam Marvin, organizing director for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 328, which represents workers at Spradlin’s center and at the Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center, a dispensary in Portsmouth, said legislators have an opportunity to guarantee equity, fair labor practices, safe working conditions and economic opportunities for communities historically affected by marijuana prohibition.
“We strongly support passing common-sense measures such as social equity licensing, worker co-operatives, automatic expungement, and labor peace agreements,” said Marvin.
Legislators pushing for legalization have agreed that social equity should be implemented to create pathways into the industry for people at an economic disadvantage, and those who might have been jailed on marijuana charges in the past. The bills introduced last spring would have created a “social equity assistance fund” financed by license and application fees that would, among other things, help disadvantaged people hurdle financial barriers to getting into the industry.
A TAXING MATTER
Just how much would legalized recreational marijuana bring into the state’s coffers? Depends on whose proposal you’re looking at.
When former Gov. Gina M. Raimondo included a plan for state-run retail stores selling cannabis in her 2020 state budget, her administration estimated that it would raise $21.8 million in taxes in the first year.
Last spring, McKee’s proposal estimated $16.9 million in new tax revenue by fiscal 2023 His plan called for an intitial 25 privately run stores and a 10% in taxes on sales tacked onto the state’s standard 7% sales tax.
That proposal also noted that there would be 97,480 adult-use cannabis consumers with $96 million in annual recreational sales – estimates based on 2019 federal survey data, which measured marijuana use combined with U.S. Census population data.
The legislation approved by the Senate last spring did not have projected revenue numbers, but it called for a 10% marijuana tax, 7% sales tax and a 3% tax for the municipality where the store is located.
“The last estimate I saw, which seemed pretty realistic and conservative, was about $20 million annually in revenue,” said Miller. “That’s for a full year of operation with a certain number of licenses processed.”
Slater’s legislation also did not offer projected revenue numbers, but it would have imposed a 20% tax, with 15% going to the state and 5% for cities and towns.
Slater believes cannabis could be a big windfall, estimating it could bring in an annual yield of about $17 million, increasing in later years.
Shekarchi isn’t so sure that legalization will pay off so well for Rhode Island. He said he’s more concerned about assembling legislation that clearly defines a fair regulatory process.
“There could be an uptick in revenue we would gladly accept,” he said. “But estimates for $100 million in [annual sales] are grossly overstated.”
There’s no doubt the numbers nationally are big.
The Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit advocating for legalization, estimates that $8 billion in tax revenue was generated since legal sales began in 2014 by the 18 states that legalized marijuana for recreational point of sale. (In June, Connecticut became the 19th state to legalize marijuana for recreational use.)
It’s numbers like these that have motivated state leaders to reach an agreement.
Still to be finalized is how many retail stores will be allowed in the state, and how much control will be given to local governments over regulation.
Miller said during the event at JWU last month that officials negotiating the framework of the recreational marijuana system had narrowed the number of retail licenses to between 30 and 40. And all proposals so far have included provisions that would allow local communities to reject marijuana retail stores within their borders.
Slater is eager to get something in place soon.
“Right now, we’re losing revenue to other states. So, it’s important to do something sooner than later,” said Slater. “People are developing their buying habits – traveling to Massachusetts to buy cannabis.”
But Wadensten, the VIBCO CEO, sees no reason to rush with what he perceives as the safety of employees at workplaces across Rhode Island at stake.
“This could have very profound consequences for industry,” he said. n
A MATTER OF LUCK: Matthew Santacroce, left, the state’s cannabis chief, displays the first winning ball during a lottery to award five licenses for medical marijuana dispensaries on Oct. 29. At right is Russ Griffiths, an R.I. Department of Business Regulation official who picked the balls from a tumbler while blindfolded.
